Re: how can I manually extract aromatic compounds from rose

Rose Aromatic oil

1. Water Distillation: - The plant material is charged into the still with boiled water continuously agitated by slow speed stirring throughout the distillation. The essential components of the plant are distilled out along with the hot water.

2. Water & Steam Distillation: - The material is supported on a grid fixed over a layer of water in the bottom of still. When the water is boiled, the steam produced in the still is saturated and at low pressure. This helps the removal of the volatile components from the plant material.

3. Dry Steam Distillation: - The plant material is supported in layers on grids set at intervals in a tall still body or is contained in perforated baskets. Live steam is injected into the bottom of the still at atmospheric pressure or at higher than atmospheric pressure to give dry superheated steam. This super heated steam separates out the volatiles. After this distillation process, the essential oil is then removed from the steam/water through condensation and separation.

4. Absolutes and Concretes (Solvent Extraction): the delicate aromatics like Jasmine, Linden Blossom, etc. can not survive the process of distillation. To capture their aromas, a process of solvent extraction is used. Fragrance materials can be extracted with the help of solvents such as hexane. The resulting product is called an absolute. It is not a pure essential oil, as it contains additional plant constituents. Absolutes are unsuitable for therapeutic purpose, due to small amount of toxic residue they will invariably contain.

The common method of extraction for rose is solvent extraction or steam distillation. Solvent extraction, or separation, is often used to extract the aromatic principles from plants with a very low yield of essence, such as rose. It is generally favored by the perfume industry, as it is more economical than the distilled process.

The solvent extraction actually yields three usable products; first the concrete (as in rose concrete), the absolutes, and the floral waxes, for addition to candles, thickening creams and lotions as a softly floral scented alternative to beeswax. The color is deep red for the absolute, light yellow for the steam distillate with consistency thick for the absolute, and thin for the steam distillate.

Rose perfumes are made from attar of roses or rose oil, which is a mixture of volatile essential oil, obtained by steam-distilling the crushed petals of roses. The technique originated in Arabia. The amount of essential oil extracted is minute, for example about 2,000 flowers are required to produce one gram of oil.

A mixture of alcohol and water are used as the solvent for the aromatics.

Constituents of Rose Otto (attar): Citronellol, Geraniol, Nerol, Farnesol, Esters, Rose Oxide, Limonene, Myrcene, Pinene. The main constituents of attar of roses are the fragrant alcohol. Reference: (Shirley Price, The Aromatherapy Workbook (Hammersmith, London: Thorsons, 1993), 54-5.)

Within every essential oil, there are naturally occurring constituents. For example, Rose Oil contains elements of a natural fraction called Citronellol. As Rose oil is very expensive, the price can be lowered by adding the cheaper fraction Citronellol (derived from Citronella), to the Rose essential oil. Technically, the end product is still Rose Oil, but has been ‘diluted’ by the addition of a cheaper constituent. All components of the oil are still 100% natural, but are the end product is now considered to be of a commercial grade. It offers a fresh floral rose note and can be used extensively in perfumes, not only for its rose character, but as a fresh floral component.

Possible Uses of rose otto: Depression, eczema, frigidity, mature skin, menopause, stress. Reference: (Julia Lawless, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Essential Oils (Rockport, MA: Element Books, 1995), 57-67.)